


dear faces hang like moons

by lavenderlotion



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Confessions, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Father's Day, Gen, Light Angst, Post-X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23547076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion
Summary: Peter was silent for a few beats before, “Father’s Day just fucking sucks.”
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Pietro Maximoff, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 21
Kudos: 299





	dear faces hang like moons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [librata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/librata/gifts).



> who wanted some Dadneto <3
> 
> title by the amazing [homosociality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociality/pseuds/homosociality)!

Erik was strolling through the mansion when he heard what sounded quite distressingly like a child crying. Looking down at the silver tray in his hands, a frown stole over Erik’s face as he considered the chocolate strawberries he’s prepared for him and Charles to enjoy in bed; a Father’s Day treat for Charles, who despite not having any children, was the best father Erik knew. 

Humming, he decided that whatever distressed child was upset could probably do with some fruit and chocolate, and changed his course, heading towards the crying he could hear. It was a muted noise, like the child was trying their best to cover it up and keep quiet, but Erik had always been one to know when a child was in need. This evening proved no different, and he quickly made his way down a twisting hallway and up a half flight of stairs—there had been a number of renovations undergone during the last half-decade to make the school much more fit for boarding that it’d been—before coming to a stop outside a familiar room. 

Peter had been with them for years now, and he and Charles were quite close. In fact, if Erik had to name a single child that Charles acted most like a father towards, Peter would be the one. He stared at the wooden door consideringly, casting out his metal-sense to ensure that Charles’ chair was still tucked away in their bedroom. It was, and a frown pulled at Erik’s lips as he wondered why Charles wasn’t here if Peter was so upset, and then figured the boy must be shielding himself. 

That made him rethink intervening, since he’d never been Peter’s favourite to begin with. No matter how hard he’d tried, the boy had refused to bond with him the way he had with Charles which... had quite honestly hurt, especially following a decade of imprisonment and Erik making the life-changing decision to stay with Charles instead of running like every fibre in his body had been urging him to. He’d tried to bond with Peter to no avail; he really liked the kid, actually, and had always thought they’d get on well. 

So there was a good chance the boy wouldn’t even want to see him if he was upset, but... he couldn’t just leave. Not when he could still hear Peter inside his room, all alone and clearly hurting. No, leaving now wouldn’t do, and Erik squared his shoulders before stepping up to the door and knocking firmly. 

“Peter, it’s Erik,” he called, then felt like an idiot. They’d lived together for five years, he’d know what Erik sounded like without him announcing himself. 

Any noise from inside the room completely died as soon as he announced himself, though he wasn’t wholly surprised. A minute or so later, a weak voice called out, “Go away, asshole,” in a tone that wasn’t reassuring in the  _ least. _

Erik tried for a smile even if Peter couldn’t see him and added, “I come bearing snacks!” in his most chipper voice. 

Half a second later, the door was opened a crack, and Erik was glad he already had a disarming smile across his face when blood-shot eyes eyed him warily. “Snacks?”

“Chocolate strawberries,” Erik offered with a wider smile, a breath of relief rushing out of him when the door opened further. 

Peter stole a strawberry and returned to his bed all in the blink of an eye, so Erik stepped into the room and urged the door closed behind him. The room was messy and smelt distantly like teenage boy—not the most pleasant smell, but one Erik would deal with for the time being. Erik wasn’t entirely sure what to say now that he was here, and he eyed Peter eyeing him silently as he racked his brain for something that would comfort a young adult when Erik had been expecting a small child. 

“Would you like to talk about what’s bothering you?” Erik eventually asked, just like Charles would, and floated the tray over so Peter could take another strawberry without having to stand to get one. 

“It’s fucking stupid, man,” Peter grumbled defensively, drawing his legs up to his chest before angrily munching on a strawberry, and then another. 

Erik carefully picked his way across the room, avoiding dirty clothes and unused textbooks before sitting gingerly on top of Peter’s bed with a scrunched nose. After a moment, he pulled his own legs onto the mattress after kicking off his slippers, then floated the tray between them so he could take a strawberry for himself before they were all gone. 

“Nothing that is causing you this much pain is stupid, Peter,” Erik told him seriously, slowly raising his arm and laying it around Peter’s shoulders. This is what he would do with any number of the other children, after all. Just because Peter was a little older didn’t mean he couldn’t do with a cuddle, right? 

Thankfully, the boy didn’t protest or pull away. Instead, he leaned into Erik’s side stiffly before slowly relaxing, eating another two strawberries before he took a deep breath. “My dad left. It’s whatever, ya know? The fucker didn’t want me and I shouldn’t even care about it, right?” Peter told him, his voice rising into a question even if Erik was sure he was trying to sound as assertive as possible. 

Erik, who’d known about Peter’s family situation thanks to Charles, shook his head and said, “I think it’s reasonable to care.”

Peter was silent for a few beats before, “Father’s Day just fucking sucks.”

“I honestly can’t say I’ve ever been too fond of it either,” Erik told him, shrugging his shoulders when Peter’s face snapped up to look at him. Erik offered him a sarcastic smile before he said, “These days I try to celebrate it in alternative ways. These strawberries had been for Charles, actually.”

Peter hummed, and dropped his eyes after a moment. Erik figured Peter had realized what he was saying without outright saying it, as talking about the death of his parents wasn’t something he often did out of choice. “Oh, yeah, that makes sense. He’s awesome at the whole dad thing, ya know?”

“Indeed,” Erik agreed, and then sat there quietly with his arm around Peter’s shoulder and the boy tucked into his side. Silence rang between them, though Erik was glad he’d intervened if only because Peter was no longer crying and was starting to sound relatively okay. Of course, Erik hadn’t fixed anything—there was nothing to fix, not with a pain like that—but at the very least he’d offered comfort when Peter had needed it. 

Eventually, Peter took another deep breath and seemed to draw his shoulders up, and Erik looked down to find him staring intently at his hands in his own lap. 

“I just... wished he’d loved me enough, ya know?” Peter asked in such a deprecating tone that it nearly broke Erik’s heart. “W-why didn’t he love me enough?”

“I think... I truly believe your father would have loved you,” he said seriously, rubbing his hand up and down Peter’s arm. “For whatever it’s worth, you’re a wonderful young man, and he would have been  _ lucky  _ to have been in your life and be your father, Peter.”

“I love you too,” Peter told him, curling even closer against Erik’s side before completely curling himself against him and hiding his face in his chest as his arms went iron right around his middle. 

Erik looked down at his lap full of young-adult-mutant and replayed what he’d just said, since he and Peter he certainly never exchanged such words before and he hadn’t been insinuating anything of the like—sure, he may have thought of Peter that way even if the boy hadn’t wanted to foster the same type of relationship with him as he had with Charles, but he’d certainly never said anything like that—and then realized, with a racing heart, what he’d said. He did some very rough math, his thoughts whirling, before it all fell into place. 

With a shaking hand, Erik weakly pet down  _ his son’s  _ grey hair, before pressing his lips to his forehead and closing his eyes against a sudden flood on his own tears, holding Peter as tightly as he physically could as his heart expanded to fit a child he could have only ever dreamed of having, and was right here in his arms. 

With an unsteady voice and more love spilling from his chest than he knew what to do with, Erik uttered of the most precious words he’d ever said, “I love you so much, my son.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on [tumblr](https://lavender-lotion.tumblr.com/)!  
> comments and kudos are much appreciated! 
> 
> i run an x-men discord server! check it out [here!](https://discord.gg/3uG3VNP)


End file.
